Towards a New Political Economy of Global Tourism Revisited - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 309

locale and the possibilities afforded by the development of transportation
infrastructures both globally and regionally. Even where ostensibly little
product differentiation between places exists, tour operators are not as foot-
loose as it is often assumed, particularly where tourist loyalties are enhanced
by historical familiarity with a destination (e.g. the Balearic Islands). More-
over, destination image and customer identification with a particular place
are to some governed by forces beyond the control of corporate marketeers.
Certain resorts may develop an iconic status by virtue of their identification
with emergent cultural trends (e.g. clubbing in Ibiza and Ayia Napa), thus in
effect becoming extensions of the very metropolitan centres from where the
majority of tourists originate (a trend which nevertheless needs to be seen in
the context of the growth of powerful club 'empires' and record company
merchandising).
Nevertheless, the industrial organisation of the international tourism
industries has been subject to a series of significant transformations in the
face of economic globalisation and neoliberal policies over the past two
decades. These changes have been driven by both external economic factors
as well as the competitive forces and technological innovations within the
various business sectors that comprise the tourism industry. For example,
Hazbun (2008: 13) illustrates the impact of corporate concentration amongst
Western European tour operators, on the supply side of tourism in Tunisia,
one of the 'laboratories' of the Mediterranean package tourist industry:
As tourism development became both highly standardized and increas-
ingly competitive, large transitional corporations sought to expand their
profits by increasing the scale of operations, thus expanding to new des-
tinations, as well as vertically integrating by increasing their stake in
hotel ownership.
These competitive pressures would have a profound effect on the structure
of both the Tunisian and Mediterranean tourism industries, precipitating a
greater influx of foreign capital as tour operators pressured destinations to
upgrade the standard of resorts, or threaten to direct their clients elsewhere
(Hazbun, 2008: 15). However, although globalisation has been accompanied
by increased levels of business concentration amongst a few globally-
integrated TTCs, the precise scope and scale of transnational capital involve-
ment in tourism varies according to the particular sector(s) of the tourism
industry involved (i.e. tour operations, hotel, airline, cruising, shopping and
attractions), as well as the historical conditions under which specific destina-
tions have become progressively integrated with global markets.
Over the past four decades, international tour operators emerged as the
principal fulcrum through which different elements of the tourism commod-
ity chain, principally charter airlines and accommodation, could be coordinated
and controlled. A combination of technological advances , from the commercial